Powers’ rug made a powerful point about the astonishing, mind-boggling plenty we all live in. In her artist’s statement about the piece, titled “the lack of comfort [all we need],” she wrote that she had spent Thanksgiving with a young man from Uganda who had started a school for deaf children there — children who are “considered the lowest form of society” because of their disability.

Powers' piece, created on the loading dock of the Loveland Feed & Grain

He told her about the uniforms the orphaned girls wear, with shorts sewn into their skirts to protect them from rape. Most of the children don’t wear underwear there, because they have none to wear. Meanwhile, in Loveland, Powers could make art from T-shirts that were the castoffs from ReStore, the Habitat for Humanity thrift store. Clothing that was unsellable even to those who buy their clothing at thrift stores.

In addition to the rug, Powers also exhibited a room-sized installation of a flock of stitched white felt cones, individually suspended points up from the ceiling, titled “the calm [wherein lies my family, my home]”. The cones moved slightly in the breeze from a broken windowpane.

Together, they formed the shape of a wing, or a whole flower. “Some people lie down and look up at it,” she told me when I ventured into the room. So of course, I had to — only to find that each cone had a center of different colored fabric, making them calla-lily-esque. And as I lay there, I had the slightest feeling that the world could reverse itself, that I was up and the ceiling down. If I reminded myself that I was on the floor, looking up, the pieces became a whole, and I felt a little bit as if I were nestled under a bird’s wing.

That’s why I think Powers, like her work, is going to be big. She grew up on a farm in Nebraska and just recently moved to Loveland. But she works small, as well, as you’ll see on her etsy shop – she also makes hand woven or hand-dyed scarves, earrings of wisps of alpaca fleece. (And she pays attention to details: the lack of a period after her middle initial is deliberate.)

She can think big and create big – and remind us how small, and yet precious, we all are.

Becky Hensley is the co-founder of Share Denver - a community craft space in Park Hill. She's also the proud Ninja-in Chief of the Denver Craft Ninjas -- a women’s crafting collective dedicated to keeping the DIY spirit alive through laughter, shared skills, and cocktails.

Colorado native Mark Montano is an international designer, artist, author and television personality. He has appeared on TLC’s “While You Were Out” and “10 Years Younger,” as well as “My Celebrity Home” on the Style Network, “She’s Moving In” on We TV, “The Tony Danza Show” on ABC, and “My Home 2.0” on Fox.